2-4 limit O8 on stars, clearing the bonus...

I have [Kh][Ks][3s] in the CO; four limpers, I limp, button limps, blinds play.
Flop: [9c][4h].
BB bets out, 2 callers, I decide to call (a raise is not driving anyone out with a straight draw, and I can make more by raising the turn if the straight misses). Button calls, SB folds.
Turn: . I still have the nuts, but now there is a zoo of draws against me. BB bets again, 1 caller, I raise, button folds, BB calls, caller calls.
River (3 people in the hand, pot=quite big): . BB leads, MP raises!? What do I do? Is MP making a raise to make me fold a medium high hand? I put BB on an A2 hand; MP could have an A2 hand with a so-so hand for high; he could also just be raising with a bare A2 because he is really happy to have made his low; and he could have a flush, of course, although it would be strange if he were raising the nuts for high here with out having a low.

Any other way to play this so that I can avoid these tough river decisions? Would a flop raise better define their hands? In these hands I have the feeling that, due to being in LP, I have no control over the hand, since I can't make anyone fold by raising.

Pieter

On 2-4 it might not matter, but I never slowplay sets, so I'd raise the flop. You usually wont' fold everyone, but at least you have a chance of knocking out the guy with a weak low that caught his backdoor flush (and they ALWAYS seem to catch the backdoor flush/str8 when you let them in cheap).

If the board was something like K56 with 2 of a suit then it's a different story and an argument can be made for calling the flop (hell, some folks will give you a good argument for folding the flop, but I'd never do it at 2-4).

I reckon those folks are probably painfully weak tight, too

Yeah, I'd raise that flop, but to be honest I think I like your play just as much. If you can limit some of the numbers up to the turn you can define the hands a bit better and probably increase your value in the pot. Your way is going to possibly get a tiny bit more money in the pot whilst increasing the risk slightly. I can't really be bothered doing the maths but I think it's close either way.

On the river I think there's probably just enough chance that the raiser is making a promotional raise, plus that your A3 may be good for half/quarter of the pot to make calling a reasonable move. You could get chopped up here but I think there's enough value to call. The fact nobody raised preflop makes an A2 less likely (are these players who have any sort of PFRing stats? if so they probably routinely raise A2 preflop, meaning your A3 is much more likely to be winning a piece of the pot).

Monk
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